#some ideologies come pre-baked with this nonsense | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

literallyaflame · 6 months

Text

okay. listen. if you ever find yourself falling into a new ideological circle, pay attention. if you notice that you’re among people who define themselves as part of an “in-group” with a pre-prepared human “enemy” to constantly rail against—if everyone fantasizes about the mental state of these loathsome monsters, if they participate in witch hunts or (perhaps worse) poke bears and court harassment on purpose to comfort each other over—get the fuck out. you haven’t been enlightened to some grand conspiracy, there are no evil “enemies” or “degenerates” trying to rip apart the fabric of society, and you do not have the moral duty to “enlighten” anyone to whatever you think the “truth” is. it’s neither safe nor normal to spend hours of your day fighting with strangers on the internet

a lot of people wear this shit like a badge of honor, but it’s also not normal to hide your “in-group” status as a form of martyrdom, relishing when the “enemy” slips up around you. it’s comforting in the moment, but in the long run, you’re alienating yourself from the world outside of your bubble. the more you alienate yourself, the more vulnerable and lonely you become, and the harder it is to reject the comfort of belonging to the “in-group”

i’m writing this from the perspective of someone who grew up in a cesspool of awful, cult-like rural churches—which is its own situation—but i see similar shit happening in online communities all the time, both within and 800 miles outside of my own ideological principles. yes, every toxicass radfem i block seems to be trapped in a version of this vicious cycle, but i also see it happening in random queer circles and niche fandom communities. no one is immune, not even me. i’ve watched people fall into this shit and never make it out. be careful

#some ideologies come pre-baked with this nonsense #because they naturally revolve around an in-group and an out-group #but i swear to god people will start acting like this over fucking #anime shipping wars #which probably seems harmless to most people #but those communities skew very young #and i have no doubt that it can be psychologically damaging #no matter how inconsequential it seems to my jaded 26 year old brain #me when i make a post

11K notes · View notes

dweemeister · 7 years

Photo

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

In modern movie industry parlance, the summer of 2017 has been noted as a rejection of more reboots and sequels than usual, at least if you only consider North America. Baywatch, the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Mummy (supposedly the rebooted universe of the Universal Monsters films), Cars 3, and Transformers: The Last Knight all struggled at the North American box office. So, the reasoning went, audiences must be thirsting for newer faces, ideas, and worlds instead. Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets fits that facile argument, but will be destined to lose tens of millions of dollars for the French, American, Chinese, Emirati, and German production companies that financed the most expensive European film ever. Beyond those figures, Valerian is not a great movie – its lead actors are dreadful, Besson’s screenplay is unorganized, and the movie itself is, to put things charitably, like falling from a fifty-foot stupid tree and smashing into every branch on the way down. And yet, I must admit I enjoyed this hot mess of sci-fi.

Orbiting the Earth, the International Space Station (ISS) has evolved into a multispecies settlement named “Alpha” over centuries. How lucky humans have been to encounter so many peaceful aliens. By the twenty-eighth century for safety reasons, Alpha has broken free of Earth’s orbit. Two of its human special police officers are smooth-talking, shoot-first-ask-questions-later Major Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and his partner – professional and romantic – Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne), who usually doesn’t tolerate Valerian’s nonsense. One day while traveling to recover an illicit device from a black marketer, Valerian has a vivid dream where a peaceful, humanoid race sees their idyllic planet destroyed. Brushing it off for now, Valerian performs his duties with the confidence of a younger Han Solo, but with greater purpose and arrogance towards his targets. Back on Alpha, Valerian and Laureline’s superior, Commander Arün Filitt (Clive Owen) commends his two most accomplished subordinates. Yet other machinations are in the offing, and it is up to our two young protagonists to investigate after an attack on Alpha’s governing council.

Other characters of note are Bubble (Rihanna), a shapeshifting performer located in a red-light district, Bubble’s pimp Jolly (Ethan Hawke), and the Defense Minister (Herbie Hancock).

Adapted from the comic book series Valérian and Laureline by Jean-Claude Mézières (as with many comic books, I haven’t read the source material), Besson’s screenplay is a structural and philosophical wreck. For every scene such as when Valerian and Laureline are retrieving the aforementioned illicit device in a tense, complex operation, there are two other juvenile moments that steer the film off a tonal cliff. Don’t be surprised if there is a Very Serious Top Secret Conversation one moment and then, a few minutes later, Valerian is dishing off about ridiculous wedding plans or the names of his and Laureline’s babies or Laureline has her head stuck up a gelatinous creature’s asshole upon the advice of three insistent, eavesdropping busybodies. There is a balance that can be struck between world-building – which Valerian pulls off spectacularly, with the immense amount of alien species onboard Alpha and the details of the station itself – and depicting a coherent storyline that challenges the audience’s intelligence. Valerian fails to meet the latter, which is its fatal flaw.

Science fiction in its most enduring iterations – in literature, film, and television – poses questions about humanity’s character, whether exemplified through humans themselves or other life-forms. What drives a person to perform an altruistic act at any given time, any given context? How does one respond to an injustice, and at what point in a narrative are they able to recognize that injustice’s effects? Why would an individual attempt to alleviate that injustice, or perhaps exploit it? The comic book series has been heralded for its space opera intermingled with its fierce, leftist (it’s French, what did you expect, Laureline pressuring the governing council to institute the gold standard in space?) humanism. If that is what Jean-Claude Mézières wished might be the bedrock of his creation, then the film adaptation dispenses such ideologies only until the closing half-hour.

Skip this rest of this paragraph if you don’t want even the slightest spoilers, Besson’s Valerian is looking to make an emphatic statement about genocide, cultural imperialism, and the politics of apologism and reparation – interesting, given that Besson produced and wrote Taken (2008; with the Muslim characters catering to European xenophobia) as well as his role as writer/director of Lucy (2014; a product of guns-blazing white feminism at the expense of anonymous Asian villains). With Besson’s best intentions written into his adaptation, I didn’t think that Valerian and Laureline’s eventual decision to openly defy the governmental-military apparatus felt organic – this is given how the two characters are developed in all prior events that are depicted. Though the two possess the occasional maverick tendencies, raining down force on others is their trade, and their ultimate decisions – though, in my opinion, the morally correct one – comes from almost nothing.

So Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is a clusterfuck based on the writing alone. But I think those who know me can attest to the fact I can turn off my brain sometimes for a half-baked movie like this – probably. And by a certain point, I just surrendered to the terrible writing and soaked all the visuals in.

Oh yes, I’m not quite done with bashing Valerian yet.

Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne have two of the worst performances I’ve seen in any movie – this blog concentrates on pre-1980s releases, but I consume plenty of newer releases – that I have seen this year. DeHaan’s Valerian is masculinity breaking the douchebaggery meter – it is monotonous to watch, and, at times, gratingly uninteresting. Also, I am now convinced model-turned-actress Cara Delevingne cannot act, as she never quite moves away from scowling disapproval or annoyed neutrality. After she starred as Enchantress in the useless Suicide Squad (2016), what the hell was anyone supposed to expect? Maybe this could have been remedied if they were fighting siblings or platonic friends instead, but alas. Put those two together alongside Besson’s writing, and they have as much chemistry as an Easy-Bake Oven – with apologies to Hasbro.

In an unexpected surprise, it is Rihanna – star of the classic nautical adventure Battleship (2012; Hasbro, what were you thinking?) – who steals this movie in the ten or so minutes that she appears as a shapeshifting Sally Bowles-like character. Well, a Sally Bowles-like character if Sally Bowles had a pole to dance with and was a slave. Rihanna might only be there to spout exposition but, would you believe it, she plays the only character I give a damn about.

What saves Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets are its technical strengths. That begins with the visual effects – all patched together by various effects companies worldwide. Sometimes grungy, other times as colorful as the likes of Life of Pi (2012) and Pacific Rim (2013), and showcasing a beautiful production design by Hugues Tissandier based off the illustrations by Mézières himself. Color injects personality into a movie, and – with the exception of any of the humans – there is plenty of personality to go around here. Olivier Bériot’s costume design and Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen’s makeup direction here are Star Trek-worthy in their variety (two hundred aliens appear in the movie – some CGI, some donning heavy makeup), invention, and unbridled experimentation. Very few contemporary movies are driven by their visuals as much as Valerian – a series of technical triumphs and a marvel of universe creation within a poor movie.

French composer Alexander Desplat (2007′s The Golden Compass, the last two Harry Potter movies) has been working in movies since 1992, and only since the mid-2000s has forged a named for himself as one of Hollywood’s most prominent, consistent composers. That admirable consistency has never resulted in an indisputably spellbinding masterpiece until now – despite the fact Desplat has never collaborated with Besson before. One of the opening cues, “Pearls on Mül”, is as warm and moving as any cue in contemporary cinema can be today – outfitted with a sparkling flute line and gravity-defying strings and chorus. But as the cue progresses, this musical bliss modulates the minor keys, and the paradise promised here might be more fragile than believed. In an environment where melody-less music is rampaging through Hollywood’s big-budget movies, this is a prime example of what movie music can do – complement and strengthen the emotions of a scene, whatever they might be. Valerian’s theme is the major motif in this film, with one of its first appearances in “Big Market” (five notes, beginning at 0:03 on piano), and it returns in distinct ways throughout the film. Less accessible is Laureline’s theme – underdeveloped like the character is – makes an appearance in “Shoot” as she recovers Valerian from danger as well as a meaningful, brief quotation in “Bubble” after a tragic moment.

Outside of Desplat’s score, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is an inspired song to lead off the opening expository montage. But for Desplat, his work for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets contains depth in melody and harmony – utilizing every section of the orchestra as much and as appropriately as possible, while not having synthetic elements interfering or overshadowing the orchestra’s efforts.

There were times in Valerian where I wanted Besson to wait just a few seconds longer, to explore a place on Alpha with more detail. Curiosity – of others, other places – is crucial in science fiction. The concept behind Jean-Claude Mézières’ Valerian has much of this curiosity, but I’m afraid that the movie adaptation seems unsure too often how to express that and other questions it wants to ask. The movie seems to have reached its target audience – which includes yours truly, at least partially. For those who have not had the pleasure of seeing Valerian yet, my only advice to you is to leave your brain outside the door – the film, upon the slightest unpackaging, is as rickety as a Jenga tower. Once again, my apologies to Hasbro.

My rating: 4.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

#Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets #Luc Besson #Dane DeHaan #Cara Delevingne #Clive Owen #Rihanna #Ethan Hawke #Herbie Hancock #Jean Claude Mezieres #Alexandre Desplat #Hugues Tissandier #Olivier Beriot #Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen #My Movie Odyssey

3 notes · View notes

financingideas-blog · 5 years

Text

Facebook still a great place to amplify pre-election junk news, EU study finds

New Post has been published on https://financeqia.com/awesome/facebook-still-a-great-place-to-amplify-pre-election-junk-news-eu-study-finds/

Facebook still a great place to amplify pre-election junk news, EU study finds

A study carried out by academics at Oxford University to investigate how junk news is being shared on social media in Europe ahead of regional elections this month has found individual stories shared on Facebook’s platform can still hugely outperform the most important and professionally produced news stories, drawing as much as 4x the volume of Facebook shares, likes, and comments.

The study, conducted for the Oxford Internet Institute’s (OII) Computational Propaganda Project, is intended to respond to widespread concern about the spread of online political disinformation on EU elections which take place later this month, by examining pre-election chatter on Facebook and Twitter in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Swedish.

Junk news in this context refers to content produced by known sources of political misinformation — aka outlets that are systematically producing and spreading “ideologically extreme, misleading, and factually incorrect information” — with the researchers comparing interactions with junk stories from such outlets to news stories produced by the most popular professional news sources to get a snapshot of public engagement with sources of misinformation ahead of the EU vote.

As we reported last year, the Institute also launched a junk news aggregator ahead of the US midterms to help Internet users get a handle on manipulative politically-charged content that might be hitting their feeds.

In the EU the European Commission has responded to rising concern about the impact of online disinformation on democratic processes by stepping up pressure on platforms and the adtech industry — issuing monthly progress reports since January after the introduction of a voluntary code of practice last year intended to encourage action to squeeze the spread of manipulative fakes. Albeit, so far these ‘progress’ reports have mostly boiled down to calls for less foot-dragging and more action.

One tangible result last month was Twitter introducing a report option for misleading tweets related to voting ahead of the EU vote, though again you have to wonder what took it so long given that online election interference is hardly a new revelation. (The OII study is also just the latest piece of research to bolster the age old maxim that falsehoods fly and the truth comes limping after.)

The study also examined how junk news spread on Twitter during the pre-EU election period, with the researchers finding that less than 4% of sources circulating on Twitter’s platform were junk news (or “known Russian sources”) — with Twitter users sharing far more links to mainstream news outlets overall (34%) over the study period.

Although the Polish language sphere was an exception — with junk news making up a fifth (21%) of EU election-related Twitter traffic in that outlying case.

Returning to Facebook, while the researchers do note that many more users interact with mainstream content overall via its platform, noting that mainstream publishers have a higher following and so “wider access to drive activity around their content” and meaning their stories “tend to be seen, liked, and shared by far more users overall”, they also point out that junk news still packs a greater per story punch — likely owing to the use of tactics such as clickbait, emotive language, and outragemongering in headlines which continues to be shown to generate more clicks and engagement on social media.

It’s also of course much quicker and easier to make some shit up vs the slower pace of doing rigorous professional journalism — so junk news purveyors can get out ahead of news events also as an eyeball-grabbing strategy to further the spread of their cynical BS. (And indeed the researchers go on to say that most of the junk news sources being shared during the pre-election period “either sensationalized or spun political and social events covered by mainstream media sources to serve a political and ideological agenda”.)

“While junk news sites were less prolific publishers than professional news producers, their stories tend to be much more engaging,” they write in a data memo covering the study. “Indeed, in five out of the seven languages (English, French, German, Spanish, and Swedish), individual stories from popular junk news outlets received on average between 1.2 to 4 times as many likes, comments, and shares than stories from professional media sources.

“In the German sphere, for instance, interactions with mainstream stories averaged only 315 (the lowest across this sub-sample) while nearing 1,973 for equivalent junk news stories.”

To conduct the research the academics gathered more than 584,000 tweets related to the European parliamentary elections from more than 187,000 unique users between April 5 and April 20 using election-related hashtags — from which they extracted more than 137,000 tweets containing a URL link, which pointed to a total of 5,774 unique media sources.

Sources that were shared 5x or more across the collection period were manually classified by a team of nine multi-lingual coders based on what they describe as “a rigorous grounded typology developed and refined through the project’s previous studies of eight elections in several countries around the world”.

Each media source was coded individually by two separate coders, via which technique they say was able to successfully label nearly 91% of all links shared during the study period.

The five most popular junk news sources were extracted from each language sphere looked at — with the researchers then measuring the volume of Facebook interactions with these outlets between April 5 and May 5, using the NewsWhip Analytics dashboard.

They also conducted a thematic analysis of the 20 most engaging junk news stories on Facebook during the data collection period to gain a better understanding of the different political narratives favoured by junk news outlets ahead of an election.

On the latter front they say the most engaging junk narratives over the study period “tend to revolve around populist themes such as anti-immigration and Islamophobic sentiment, with few expressing Euroscepticism or directly mentioning European leaders or parties”.

Which suggests that EU-level political disinformation is a more issue-focused animal (and/or less developed) — vs the kind of personal attacks that have been normalized in US politics (and were richly and infamously exploited by Kremlin-backed anti-Clinton political disinformation during the 2016 US presidential election, for example).

This is likely also because of a lower level of political awareness attached to individuals involved in EU institutions and politics, and the multi-national state nature of the pan-EU project — which inevitably bakes in far greater diversity. (We can posit that just as it aids robustness in biological life, diversity appears to bolster democratic resilience vs political nonsense.)

The researchers also say they identified two noticeable patterns in the thematic content of junk stories that sought to cynically spin political or social news events for political gain over the pre-election study period.

“Out of the twenty stories we analysed, 9 featured explicit mentions of ‘Muslims’ and the Islamic faith in general, while seven mentioned ‘migrants’, ‘immigration’, or ‘refugees’… In seven instances, mentions of Muslims and immigrants were coupled with reporting on terrorism or violent crime, including sexual assault and honour killings,” they write.

“Several stories also mentioned the Notre Dame fire, some propagating the idea that the arson had been deliberately plotted by Islamist terrorists, for example, or suggesting that the French government’s reconstruction plans for the cathedral would include a minaret. In contrast, only 4 stories featured Euroscepticism or direct mention of European Union leaders and parties.

“The ones that did either turned a specific political figure into one of derision – such as Arnoud van Doorn, former member of PVV, the Dutch nationalist and far-right party of Geert Wilders, who converted to Islam in 2012 – or revolved around domestic politics. One such story relayed allegations that Emmanuel Macron had been using public taxes to finance ISIS jihadists in Syrian camps, while another highlighted an offer by Vladimir Putin to provide financial assistance to rebuild Notre Dame.”

Taken together, the researchers conclude that “individuals discussing politics on social media ahead of the European parliamentary elections shared links to high-quality news content, including high volumes of content produced by independent citizen, civic groups and civil society organizations, compared to other elections we monitored in France, Sweden, and Germany”.

Which suggests that attempts to manipulate the pan-EU election are either less prolific or, well, less successful than those which have targeted some recent national elections in EU Member States. And logic would suggest that co-ordinating election interference across a 28-Member State bloc does require greater co-ordination and resource vs trying to meddle in a single national election — on account of the multiple countries, cultures, languages and issues involved.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment on the study’s findings.

The company has put a heavy focus on publicizing its self-styled ‘election security’ efforts ahead of the EU election. Though it has mostly focused on setting up systems to control political ads — whereas junk news purveyors are simply uploading regular Facebook ‘content’ at the same time as wrapping it in bogus claims of ‘journalism’ — none of which Facebook objects to. All of which allows would-be election manipulators to pass off junk views as online news, leveraging the reach of Facebook’s platform and its attention-hogging algorithms to amplify hateful nonsense. While any increase in engagement is a win for Facebook’s ad business, so er…

When it comes to elections, Facebook moves slow, may still break things